Editing Japanese Alps (section)

== History ==
The Japanese Alps has a long history before [[William Gowland]] established this name. The Japanese Alps have been used as a place of ascetic practice for Buddhists monks and ''[[Shugendō|Shugenja]]'' since ancient times.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20210213191248/https://www.city.matsumoto.nagano.jp/shisei/matidukuri/keikan/rekishiteki/15035520201224094016729.files/2-7kinndaitozann.pdf (7) 近代登山にみる歴史的風致.] [[Matsumoto City]].</ref> From the 1600s to the 1800s, [[samurai]] officers of the [[Kaga domain]] travelled deep into the [[Hida Mountains]] with local hunters and farmers as guides to preserve the timber of the mountains and continued to create maps recording ridges, valleys and vegetation. This survey is called ''Okuyama-mawari'' ([[:ja:奥山廻り|奥山廻り]]).<ref name ="tateyamam">[https://web.archive.org/web/20210213185038/http://www.pref.toyama.jp/branches/3043/e_memoirs/pdf/10_2003_03.pdf Hiroshi Yonehara. ''新川郡における「山廻役」と「奥山廻リ」についての一考察''.] Tateyama Museum</ref> 

Even now, it is very difficult to cross the steep Hida mountains, one of the world's heaviest snowfall areas, in winter. Therefore, it is considered a historical event in Japan that in the winter of 1584, ''[[daimyō]]'' [[Sassa Narimasa]]'s forces crossed over the mountain range over Zara Pass and Harinoki Pass. This event is called "Sarasara-goe" (さらさら越え) derived from Sassa and Zara Pass.<ref name ="tateyamam"/>

However, these Hida Mountains surveys did not seem to have been inherited by modern Japanese mountaineers who trekked through the mountains as a sport. As Kojima Usui later recalled, “in those days,... no one knew even the names of the mountains, much less their locations or elevations. To go mountaineering was literally to strike out into the unknown country.”<ref name=Wigen2005>{{cite journal |last1=Wigen |first1=Karen |title=Discovering the Japanese Alps: Meiji Mountaineering and the Quest for Geographical Enlightenment |journal=The Journal of Japanese Studies |date=2005 |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=1–26 |id={{Project MUSE|178069}} |doi=10.1353/jjs.2005.0031 |s2cid=144748951 }}</ref>

The first modern geological survey sheets were issued in 1890. The report mentioned major peaks, but the topography was mostly guesswork. From 1891, foreign travelers were able to find useful information in [[Basil Hall Chamberlain]] and W.B. Mason's ''Handbook for Travellers in Japan''. However, for decades, the Japanese were climbing these mountains without a comparable guidebook. Japanese people did physical exploration over a decade in the 1890s. They divided the mountains into (north, central, and south) depending on how they were conventionally grouped. [[William Gowland]], an English geologist, first thought of this swath of terrain as forming a single coherent landscape, comparable to the European Alps. Gowland's view was further developed by another Englishman and Christian missionary, [[Walter Weston]], who was able “to canonize Gowland's geographical conception, deploying it as a de facto proper noun”.<ref name=Wigen2005/> 

Gowland explored several parts of the ranges in the 1860s, being the first documented foreigner to climb two peaks in the Alps, [[Mount Yari]] and [[Mount Norikura]]. Gowland was an archaeologist, and he explored these ranges for archaeological reasons. While Gowland was the first foreigner to explore the ranges, Reverend Walter Weston, a Christian missionary, was the first foreigner to document his experiences.

About twenty years after Gowland's explorations, Weston explored the ranges himself with Gowland's notes on his explorations.<ref name="Weston1896">{{cite book|author=Walter Weston|title=Mountaineering and Exploration in the Japanese Alps|url=https://archive.org/details/mountaineeringa00westgoog|year=1896|publisher=J. Murray}}</ref> Weston was led up many mountains by Kamijō kamonji, a mountain guide living in [[Kamikōchi]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20201005163538/https://www.kamikochi.or.jp/article/show/13 Kamikochi.] Kamikochi Resort Hotel Association.</ref> Weston explored the same ranges that Gowland previously traversed, and ascended the [[Mount Shirouma]], [[Mount Jōnen]], [[Mount Kasa]], [[Mount Hotakadake|Mount Hotaka]], and other minor mountains.<ref name="Weston1896"/>

Weston first documented the two main mountain systems distinguishable by geological structure. The first of these he called the "China system" due to its connection with southeast China from just south of the Japanese archipelago. The second was called the "Karafuto system", due to the fact that it enters Japan from [[Karafuto]] to the north and runs southwest. These two were considered to be the first western explorers of the range, and as a result Weston, with the help of Gowland, popularized and documented different parts of the ranges in an incredibly in-depth manner for others to expand on.<ref name="Weston1896"/>

In 1907, Yoshitaro Shibasaki and others succeeded in climbing [[Mount Tsurugi (Toyama)|Mount Tsurugi]], which is said to be the last unexplored peak in Japan and the most difficult to climb. On this occasion, they found the ornaments of a metal ''[[Shugendō|shugenja]]'' cane and a sword on the top of the mountain. A scientific investigation later confirmed that the ornaments of the cane and the sword were from the late [[Nara period]] to the early [[Heian period]]. It turned out that Mount Tsurugi had already been climbed by ''shugenja'' more than 1,000 years ago.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200930190011/https://toyama-bunkaisan.jp/search/1578/ 銅錫杖頭附鉄剣（剣岳発見）.] [[Agency for Cultural Affairs]].</ref>

From the 1960s to the 1970s, the transportation infrastructure of the Japanese Alps was improved, and access to some popular mountain areas became dramatically easier, increasing not only climbers but also tourists. The [[Komagatake Ropeway]] opened in 1967,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20201022035544/https://www.chuo-alps.com/ropeway-history/ Komagatake Ropeway]</ref> the [[Shinhotaka Ropeway]] opened in 1970,<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20201129232859/https://shinhotaka-ropeway.jp/about/ Shinhotaka Ropeway]</ref> and the [[Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route]] fully opened in 1971.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200921063158/https://www.alpen-route.com/enjoy_navi/history_exploring/development.html Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route]</ref>